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Illinois Neurodiversity Initiative Now in its third year, the Illinois Neurodiversity Initiative (INI) is a program designed to support college students who are neurodivergent from the time they start college until they graduate and find successful employment through academic, social, mental health, and job readiness support. The OCR has partnered with INI/The Autism Project and ACES to secure support from several companies for the HDFS 199: Pre- Employment Seminar. Companies such as Capital One, KPMG, Synchrony, State Farm, Ernst and Young (EY), bp, Kroger, Mentra, and Wells Fargo visited or showed interest in this class. These companies recognize the valuable skills that neurodivergent students can bring to their workplaces and are interested in creating neurodiverse hiring initiatives within their organizations. Synchrony has committed to co-piloting a neurodiverse internship program with INI students during the summer and has invested in this initiative. Meanwhile, State Farm has pledged to support the INI program with a large investment each year for the next five
years. They are excited to continue partnering with INI and help grow the program. To help students learn more about State Farm and its culture, they took a field trip to the company’s headquarters in Bloomington, IL. In addition, bp has brought guest speakers to help students enhance their chances to land an internship or even full-time jobs. The company also helped the program’s networking activities with financial support. The INI program is grateful for the support of our committed corporate partners as we work to support our neurodivergent students throughout their academic journey and into their careers.
CORPORATE ENGAGEMENT INITIATIVES SUPPORTED BY THE OCR
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